musical guest

It looks like Megan Fox hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live is all but officially confirmed by the folks behind the show. And now we've gotten word that U2 will be the first musical guest for the new season of SNL. They're in the midst of their U2 360 world tour promoting their latest album, No Line on the Horizon.

I don't know if U2 has the same kind of pull on the kids today as they have had on my generation through the years, but in my eyes this is a pretty significant "get" for one of NBC's marquee shows.

Anyone out there genuinely looking forward to The Jay Leno Show? Anyone?

Like most Squadders, I'm not too thrilled with NBC's decision to hand over the nightly 10 p.m. timeslot to Leno, leaving less room on the sked for scripted dramas. The thought of watching Leno's incredibly bland stand-up routine and more "Jaywalking" segments in prime time doesn't really appeal to me. But I might just tune in, at least for a few minutes every night, to check out the show's musical segments.

Leno says he plans to showcase interesting musical groupings when the show kicks off Sept. 14. Up first will be Jay-Z with superstars Rihanna and Kanye West. On Sept. 17, Leno will feature guitar legend Eric Clapton performing with Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. Clapton and Hornsby will perform "Space is the Place," a song from Hornsby's new album.

Leno's musical segments will probably only feature mainstream artists and hitmakers – I don't think we'll see people like Mos Def and The Silversun Pickups sharing NBC's stage anytime soon – but I'm looking forward to seeing who else gets booked to perform together.

If you're a fan of U2 and are kicking yourself for missing them perform not one but three songs when Late Night with Conan O'Brien dedicated an entire episode to them in October, you can catch a repeat of the episode this evening. This was the first time Conan dedicated an entire show to one musical guest, but others followed, including the White Stripes and Neil Young.

[via Pop Candy]